MLL Graduate Course Offerings:
Fall 2023
EALC-Chinese
Graduate course number: CHI5505
Course Title: Readings in Chinese Literature
Instructor: Zhiying Qian
Time: TR, 4:50-6:05 pm
Language of Class Discussion: Chinese
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
The course helps students to further develop their fluency and accuracy in advanced-level Chinese for using complex vocabulary and sentence patterns, grasping basic forms of expository and argumentative prose, and discussing real-life issues of contemporary China both in writing and conversation. Upon completing this course, students will be able to 1) expand their knowledge of vocabulary and sentence patterns at the advanced-high level, 2) learn to interpret and analyze advanced-high level Chinese writings from regular Chinese publications , 3) write compositions of adequate length exploring topics derived from course materials; 4) converse on social and intellectual topics related to China in meaningful contexts, and 5) obtain in-depth understanding of some major sociopolitical issues of China today.
EALC-Japanese
Graduate course number: ASN 5825
Course Title: East Asian Humanities
Instructor: Matt Mewhinney
Time: Mon. & Wed. 3:05-4:20 PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
This course is designed as a continuous conversation with selected major historical, religious, philosophical, and literary works from East Asian traditions. These texts, although formed and transmitted in the particular historical, geographical, and cultural contexts of East Asia starting about three millennia ago, nonetheless invite us to join in and carry on their discussions concerning general and common human conditions and issues that we still inevitably encounter in our present world.
This is a core seminar in the EALC program and is required for all incoming (first-year) EALC graduate students.
Graduate course number: JPW 5135
Course Title: Prewar Japanese Literature
Instructor: Matt Mewhinney
Time: Mon. & Wed. 4:50–6:05 PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes (but the student must have advanced reading proficiency in Japanese—a placement test might be required.)
Course Description:
This course examines texts in prewar Japanese literature and literary and cultural criticism, concentrating on modern Japanese writers from the Meiji (1867-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods. Students will learn how to read and critically evaluate these texts with the help of secondary readings in English. All primary texts are in presented in the original Japanese. Authors include Higuchi Ichiyō, Mori Ōgai, Masaoka Shiki, Natsume Sōseki, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, Yosano Akiko, and Yokomitsu Riichi.
This course is cross-listed with an undergraduate section JPW4136. Graduate students enrolled in JPW5135 will be evaluated at a higher level through rigorous written assessments that involve translation from Japanese into English as well as critical reflection on the texts and themes covered in the course. Supplementary readings will also be provided.
Graduate course number: JPT 5935
Course Title: Contemporary Japanese Media Ecologies
Instructor: Franz Prichard
Time: Tues. & Thurs. 1:20–2:35 PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
Study of contemporary Japan’s vibrant media cultures through major works of literature, film, anime, manga and more. The course will survey the entangled transformations of Japan’s urban and media ecologies and attend to the multi-sensorial vocabularies of embodiment, environment, and aesthetic experience found in significant media texts and media studies discourses. Students will develop competence working with interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to the study of contemporary Japan’s media cultures through weekly discussions, midterm and final writing assignments, as well as opportunities for creative engagements with the material.
This course is cross-listed with an undergraduate section JPT4934. Graduate students enrolled in JPT5935 will be evaluated at a higher level through rigorous written assessments that involve critical summaries of existing research as well as critical discussions of the texts and themes covered in the course. Supplementary readings will also be provided.
French
Graduate [A1] course number: FRE 5567
Course Title: Introduction to Global French Studies
Instructor: Dr. Michelle Bumatay
Time: T/Th 1:20 pm – 2: 35 pm
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: No
Course Description:
This course introduces first-year graduate students in the French MA and PhD programs to the methodologies, skills, and strategies that will prepare them to succeed academically in their field of scholarly expertise. It will orient graduate students’ interests to the program faculty’s research by crossing spatial and temporal boundaries between areas of expertise in order to explore the “interconnect[ions] of cultural difference within and beyond the nation,” as Suleiman and Macdonald write in their introduction to “French Global: A New Approach to Literary History.” Rather than organize itself around the traditional spatial and temporal boundaries that have divided Francophone from French Studies and historical periodizations from each other, the course will consider every area and era of the literary and cultural production of the French-speaking world in relation. Additionally, students will learn about the traditional organization of fields by examining conference calls for papers and job ads that are organized around historical eras and spatial areas of the world, as well as concepts and genres. This course critically explores how a Global French approach capacitates us to move nimbly among these field-based specificities and prepares us for the currently ongoing shifts within French Studies.
Graduate course number: FRW 5586 FRW 4420 ITW 5415 ITW 4400 FOL 5934
Course Title: Dialogues of the French and Italian Renaissance
Instructor: Dr. Reinier Leushuis
Time: TR 1:20-2:35 PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
While Italy is traditionally considered the cradle of the Renaissance, European humanism is profoundly indebted to the rich interaction between Italy and France at this time. This course will explore the various ‘dialogues’ between Italian and French literature and culture during the Renaissance. We will read the texts of French travelers in Italy and Italian artists in France; we will compare the ways in which Italian and French Renaissance authors crafted and legitimized not only their societies and cultures but also their vernacular languages in light of the imitation of classical antiquity; we will study the influence of Italian poetry and Neoplatonic prose in shaping the ideologies and experiences of love and desire; and we will compare the exemplary role of women authors and thinkers in both cultures. In addition to lyric poetry and prose forms (e.g. the novella) this course will pay particular attention to the dialogue, a literary text staging the voices of several interlocutors debating issues of the time. We will appreciate the new-found popularity of this form in both countries in the context of the humanist questioning of dogmatism, and the need to cover the complexities of humankind in a variety of voices in debate. This course will be thematic in nature; in each session we will discuss texts from both the Italian and French Renaissance around a certain theme. The course will be taught in English and all readings will be available in English translation. However, to the extent possible, texts will be made available in the original language. All written work, such as reader responses, midterm and final papers, must be written in the student’s target language (except for native speakers who will write in English; or for students in FOL 5934).
German
Graduate course number: GEW 5596
Course Title: German Novellas of Realism
Instructor: Dr. A. Dana Weber
Time: Tu/Th 4:50 – 6:05 pm
Language of Class Discussion: German
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
The photographic and historical accuracy that we take for granted in art and media today has its origins in the aesthetics of nineteenth-century Realism. Engaging with the German understanding of this Realism offers students a better understanding of their own cultural assumptions. While the course familiarizes students with influential texts of German literature, it also trains their analytical and interpretational skills. Additionally, course discussions, projects, and assignments, will increase the students’ linguistic abilities in German. Dual-language texts and films will aid comprehension.
Graduate course number: GEW 5595
Course Title: Postwar Collective Memory
Instructor: Birgit Maier-Katkin
Time: Thursdays 11:35 am – 2:35 pm
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
The course explores responses in film and literature that treat the legacy of Nazi Crimes Against Humanity from a Postwar Germany perspective. Drawing on the perspectives of victims, perpetrators, bystanders, helpers, resisters, and members of the subsequent generations, the course investigates how cultural memory is created in the aftermath of these horrific events, how filmmakers, writers, and memorials reveal a multiplicity of voices and reflect on the indelible mark of the Nazi past in Germany. The primary aim of this course is to study the ways in which one represents, remembers, and comes to terms with traumatic historical events from the perspective of survivors as well as members of the second and preceding generations. We will examine the techniques by which one bears witness to it, and the extent to which this event challenges the foundational narratives of a discourse of remembrance. The course is taught in English.
Italian
Graduate course number: ITW 5485-0001
Course Title: 20th Century Italian Literature and Culture: The “Economic Boom” or “Miracle Years”:
Instructor: Mark Pietralunga
Time: TuTh: 4:50-6:05PM
Language of Class Discussion: Italian
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No / Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: No / Yes
Course Description:
Through the selection of representative literary, cinematic, and cultural works, this course examines the relationship between the Italian intellectuals and the industrial and technological changes in Italy during the so-called “Economic Miracle” or “Boom Years” from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. It is during this time that the Italian society begins to exhibit many of the general characteristics of a modern western industrial society. Consumerism becomes a prominent subject in these years. Within this context, the course explores how literature, film, and other cultural products penetrate the reality of “industry” and how to redefine the human project in the face of the proliferation of “industrial” objectives. Additionally, the course considers such questions as the changing roles of women and the transformation of the urban environment, the effects of immigration on internal migration on society and culture, the impact of technology and industry on language, the reaction, resistance, and changes in Italians’ eating habits and musical tastes, the question of Italian style and the role of design, the best seller “Di Qualita’” and the “Americanization” of Italian culture.
Slavic
Graduate course number: RUS5415
Course Title: Graduate Russian Conversation and Composition
Instructor: Nina Efimov
Time: TuTh 1:20-2:35
Language of Class Discussion: Russian
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description: The course is designed for graduate students who have taken RUS3420 Grammar and Composition or RUS 4421 Advanced Grammar and Composition or their equivalents. The course will explore subtle points of advanced Russian grammar and journalist style in Russian mass media. It will consist of Russian grammar review, translations from English into Russian, discussions on current events broadcasted in Russian by mass media, and on literary texts or films. Excerpts from news and newspapers will be viewed and scripts will be given for home translation. Students have to learn new vocabulary , translate, discus, and write about the texts using grammatical constructs examined in class. For instance, if the gerunds were the subject of the grammar review, the students will be asked to make up sentences on the topic by using constructions with the gerunds. In order to intensify the learning process, oral exercises will be commonly used in class. Students will be asked to compose texts on assigned topics through the eyes of imaginary characters, Russian and American people or political figures. This course will help students perfect their writing and speaking skills in Russian, will bring them from an advanced to high level of writing proficiency and will enable them to compose essays on current cultural and political events in sophisticated Russian.
Graduate course number: RUS 5845
Course Title: History of the Ukrainian and Russian Languages
Instructor: Robert Romanchuk
Time: We 4:50PM - 7:50PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes (or any Indo-European language)
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description: How and why do Ukrainian & Russian differ from other Indo-European and Slavic languages and from one another? What are the historical causes of their irregularities and variants? Find out the answers, and learn to read Old Rusian and Church Slavic too.
Graduate course number:
Course Title: Vladimir Nabokov
Instructor: Lisa Wakamiya
Time: We 4:50PM - 7:50PM
Language of Class Discussion: English
Reading knowledge in required in target language: No
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description: The multilingual novelist, poet, screenwriter, translator, and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is one of the most remarkable literary figures of the 20th century. We will consider several theoretical and creative/technological approaches through which Nabokov's work may be read while discussing some of his best-known writings (Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire, among others). This seminar will be particularly relevant to students interested in translation, writing in emigration, modernism and the postmodern, and the integration of technology into literary studies. Course participants will have the opportunity to pursue topics relevant to ethics and reading, exile and writing, and intermedial literary analysis.
Spanish
Graduate course number: LIN 5744
Course Title: Introduction to Language, Language Learning, and Language Instruction
Instructor: Leeser
Time: TR 3:05-4:20
Language of Class Discussion: English
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
The overall goal of this course is to give all incoming language instructors in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics an overview of the basics of language, the major processes of language acquisition, and the principles underlying communicative approaches to second language instruction (as informed by research and theory in second language acquisition).
Graduate course number: FOW 5025
Course Title: Critical Theory of Non-English Literatures
Instructor: Howard
Time: TR 3:05-4:20
Language of Class Discussion: English
Open to graduate students from other MLL programs/departments: Yes
Course Description:
This course offers graduate students an introduction to the major schools of critical theory from the 1960s to the present and an analysis of the problems critical theory addresses. We will analyze examples of how theory has been applied to the reading of world literature, and thus examine the relationship between critical theory and literature.
Graduate course number: SPW 5385
Course Title: Early and Modern Spanish American Fiction
Instructor: Gomariz
Time: MW 3:05-4:20
Language of Class Discussion: Spanish
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Course Description:
This course studies Spanish American Literatures from Romanticism to Modernismo.
Graduate course number: SPW 5357
Course Title: Contemporary Spanish American Poetry
Instructor: Galeano
Time: M 6:35-9:05
Language of Class Discussion: Spanish
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Course Description:
TBA
Graduate course number: SPN 5785
Course Title: Acoustic Phonetics of Spanish
Instructor: González
Time: TR 1:20-2:35
Language of Class Discussion: Spanish
Course Description:
This course provides a thorough background in acoustic phonetics and its application in the description and analysis of Spanish sounds. It also offers an overview of the acoustic characteristics of Spanish sounds and suprasegmentals, and how they compare to English.
Graduate course number: SPN 5805
Course Title: Spanish Morphology and Syntax
Instructor: Reglero
Time: TR 11:35-12:50
Language of Class Discussion: Spanish
Reading knowledge in required in target language: Yes
Course Description:
This course offers an overview of Spanish syntax from an early generative perspective (Chomsky 1981, 1986). In the course, we will provide an in-depth analysis of selected syntactic phenomena such as the Noun Phrase, the Verb Phrase, the sentence, word order and ellipsis. (Minimum requirement for the MA exam in Syntax)